River Line to debut amid hopes, criticismSunday start is historic, but not everyone is on board

By RICHARD PEARSALL

The River Line passes through Camden en route to Trenton, a
trip that will take 73 minutes.

Shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday, a diesel-powered train that can carry
180 passengers will pull away from the Entertainment Center station
here, marking the start of service on the South Jersey light rail line.

Just how many passengers the train will actually carry - on Sunday,
Monday and in the days and months to come - remains the billion-dollar
question about the controversial billion-dollar line.

Full or empty, Sunday's inaugural run of the 34-mile,
Camden-to-Trenton "River Line" will be a historic occasion.

It is the start of the largest-ever public sector investment in South
Jersey, the first "trolley" to run through the streets of
Camden since 1937 and the first passenger train to run along the
Delaware from Camden to Trenton since 1963.

By comparison, the PATCO Hi-Speedline, which opened in 1969 and which
carries roughly six times as many passengers a day as the River Line is
expected to carry, cost $94 million.

The Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry
bridges together cost less than $350 million to construct (again, of
course, in "yesteryear" dollars.)

Some people, such as Hamilton resident Rosa Rivera, are planning to
give it a try.

"It will drop me off right outside my building," said
Rivera, director of financial services at Rutgers-Camden, who plans to
take the train from Bordentown.

But most people interviewed Thursday called it a waste of money, even
as they hoped it would succeed.

"I used to teach environmental science," said Rick Hall,
55, a chiropractor from Willingboro, "so I'm aware how important it
is to get cars off the road. But I don't think this line is going to get
enough people off the road to justify the expense."

The current administration in Trenton took office cursing the River
Line as a terrible investment that should never have been built and that
the state could ill afford.

Gov. James E. McGreevey went so far as to launch a criminal
investigation of the project more than a year ago - an investigation
that disappeared into the recesses of the Attorney General's Office and
hasn't been heard of since.

But having completed the line - albeit 14 months behind schedule and
several hundred million dollars over budget - the current administration
is determined to make the best of it, it says, both as transportation
and as an engine for economic development.

When McGreevey, State Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere and
NJ Transit Executive Director George Warrington break a bottle of
champagne over a rail car Saturday to christen the line, they will urge
residents to put behind them the line's "colorful history," as
Warrington put it recently.

They will talk instead of their hopes for the revival of Camden and
Trenton and all the old riverfront communities in between.

On Thursday, Joseph North, the NJ Transit official in charge of light
rail operations, predicted residents will be "pleasantly
surprised" when they hop aboard the line.

Given the generally low level of expectations, North may be proven
correct.

Rosa Feketics, a 93-year-old Beverly resident, said she was going to
ride the line, describing it as "convenient."

But others find it unnecessary. Hall, of Willingboro, says everyone
he hears talking about it in his office in Burlington Township views the
line as a "waste of money."

Planners and developers, however, see bright promise in the rail
line, talking about the millions of dollars that have already been
invested on nearby projects such as the Burlington Coat Factory in
Edgewater Park and the Merck Medco offices in Willingboro.

But those are on Route 130, not on the line itself, critics note, as
is most of the retail development that has taken place in recent years.

And in the old riverfront towns, there are only limited signs of
revival in downtown business districts that are hard-pressed to compete
with the big box stores on the highway.

"Everybody's hoping for success," said Joseph Domenus, the
owner of the Riverside News Agency. "But I don't see it happening.
They can push it any way they want, but what the line amounts to is
transportation for people who don't have transportation."

More or better bus service would serve the same purpose at far less
expense, Domenus said.

Critics of the line complain about more than the economics of the
line. They don't like the additional traffic signals that have been
installed, saying the line is causing congestion, not relieving it.

They don't like the horns that are sounded at each of the 70 grade
crossings, comparing the blare to the sound of a "strangled
duck," as one resident put it.

They worry that the trains will bring more drugs and criminals to
their towns than tourists or shoppers.

Transit officials have adjusted the traffic signals and are
"working" on the horns, although they are limited in what they
can do by federal regulations, they say.

They have set a bargain basement price of $1.10 anywhere on the line
to attract riders.

They are doing what they can to ameliorate one of the principal
problems with the line - its limited hours.

Because it shares the tracks with Conrail, the River Line will
operate only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., which limits its utility for
night-time entertainment events in Camden and Trenton and connections
coming back from Philadelphia or New York.

The trains will operate until midnight Saturdays, when there are no
freight runs.

And on other days NJ Transit will run a late-night shuttle service
between Pennsauken and Camden (on tracks that it does not share with
Conrail) for concertgoers and baseball fans who want to avoid the hassle
of parking in the city.

Camden
Courier-Post - March 12, 2004

Riders will face a learning curve

By MICHAEL T. BURKHART

It took time, but riders on the light rail trains in Dallas mastered
the art of the newspaper "commuter fold."

They also figured out how to read train schedules and learned when to
leave home in case they hit a traffic jam on the way to the station. And
they know how to use the automatic ticket vending machines.

"It's learning about using transit," said Morgan Lyons,
spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, or DART, which opened its first
line in 1996 and expanded several times. "When we say the train
leaves at 6:05 a.m., it leaves at 6:05 a.m."

Sunday morning, residents along the Route 130 corridor begin the
learning curve as New Jersey Transit starts public operation of the
34-mile River Line between Camden and Trenton. That includes figuring
out how to fold a newspaper so commuters don't bump elbows,
understanding schedules and buying tickets.

The white, blue and yellow diesel-powered trains will run every 30
minutes, making the trip from the Tweeter Center in Camden to the
Trenton train station in 73 minutes.

People other than the riders also must get used to the trains,
officials from other transit agencies said. That especially includes
drivers traveling roads along the tracks.

In Houston, there have been 18 crashes between vehicles and
streetcars since the 7 1/2-mile light rail line opened Jan. 1. None has
been fatal.

The biggest problem with Houston MetroRail, which runs from downtown
to the Reliant Center, is motorists making illegal left turns in front
of the 100-foot-long streetcars, said spokesman Ken Connaughton.

Much of the track runs through city streets, similar to the setup in
Camden.

"There may be the element of the line being new and
strange," Connaughton said. "But it's really people not taking
responsibility for their own driving."

At some locations along River Road from Palmyra to Riverside, traffic
lights blink yellow for the main drag until a train approaches. As a
train nears, the traffic light goes through its cycles to keep drivers
off the tracks or from turning into the train's path.

When the train is gone, the lights go back to flash mode.

There have been no collisions between motorists and trains on the
River Line, said Joseph North, general manager of light rail operations
for NJ Transit. There are 70 road crossings on the line.

"We've minimized left-hand turns," North said.

Earlier this month, NJ Transit workers continued to flag the main
crossing in Riverside. But the signals are now working properly, said
Pat McWilliams, manager of operations.

There are 20 stations along the River Line and about 3,300 parking
spaces. The trains are serviced in an industrial-looking building off
36th Street in Camden, which also houses the dispatch center.

The 20 light rail cars - which can each hold 186 people - are powered
by 12-cylinder Mercedes-Benz engines and get 2 miles to the gallon,
North said. In the shop, workers wash the cars and do routine
maintenance on the wheels and engines.

In other parts of the country, light rail is expanding. Work is under
way in California to connect the state capital of Sacramento with Folsom
to the east.

For nearly a week after opening one extension this year, customer
service people helped riders work the ticket vending machines and read
schedules, said Mike Wiley, an assistant general manager with Sacramento
Regional Transit District.

"There's a period of time where people need to know how things
operate," he said. "But people got acclimated to it fairly
fast."

Riders also needed to get accustomed to the length of time that
trains stop at the stations, Wiley said. It's not like a bus where the
driver might wait if he sees someone making a dash for the stop.

Trains must run on schedule, he said. Because part of the Sacramento
line is single-track - as is the River Line - one late train could have
a ripple effect across the system.

"When a train pulls into a station you have 20 seconds," he
said. "You need to be ready."

Sherry Edwards, 53, would rather take the train than the bus when she
heads from her Cinnaminson home to shop in Burlington City.

"I'm going to give it a try," she said. "I can walk
from home to the station."

Edwards has no fears about using the ticket machines or figuring out
schedules. As she waited Thursday for her bus home, a test train rolled
past the corner.

"I'm fine reading the schedules," she said. "They're
similar to bus schedules."

On the River Line, riders have about 30 seconds to get on the trains
when they stop at the stations, North said. But drivers will wait if
patrons have trouble getting on or are seen rushing along the platform.

"We tell operators that they can stay longer than 30
seconds," he said, adding that time can be made up in the schedule.
"Safety is more important than schedule."

For the first week of service, NJ Transit will have employees at the
stations to help riders use the ticket machines, North said.

The folks in Dallas probably had a tougher time getting used to light
rail than residents will in South Jersey. Until the line was built,
Dallas went several decades without any commuter rail or trolleys.

In South Jersey, those kinds of services have been available for
decades. While trolleys have not run in Camden for more than 60 years,
there is the 30-year-old PATCO Hi-Speedline, as well as subways,
commuter trains and streetcars in Philadelphia.

"In New Jersey, even if you don't regularly use mass transit
you've probably been on it occasionally," North said. "It
won't be totally alien."

Camden
Courier-Post - March 12, 2004

The South Jersey light rail line, recently renamed the River
Line, is scheduled to commence running along a 34-mile route
from Camden to Trenton Sunday March 14.

Riders can board at
any of its 20 stops and ride to any other on the line for
$1.10, a rate well below bus service for comparable trips. The bargain rate is
intended to attract riders to a line that has been
controversial from its inception in the summer of 1995.

The line is
expected to carry less than 6,000 fares on an average weekday,
an amount, that combined with the lower fare, will make it the
poorest performing rail line in the nation in terms of the
fare box. Fares generated
will cover less than five percent of the line's operating
cost.

The 34-mile line,
which cost more than $1 billion to build, will run every half
hour from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. most days, with extended service
to midnight on Saturdays when it does not have to relinquish
the

tracks to freight service after 10 p.m.

Transit officials
see it as an important link to other rail service. Riders can
debark at Camden and get on the PATCO high-speed line to
Philadelphia or get off in Trenton to take NJTransit or Amtrak
trains to North Jersey and New York.

State and local
officials hope the line will stimulate economic growth in
addition to providing transportation.

A trip from the
E-center in Camden to the Amtrak station in Trenton will take
73 minutes.

Upper
Left: The River Line running west on Cooper Street on its first day of
service,

Upper
Right: Eddie Ruberte of Mount LAurel prepares to ride the River Line with
his two daughters, Anadie, 4, and Evanna, 6.

Left:
Laurence Storm, 46, of Pine Hill, and Brtandon Harris, 16, of Camden, were
the first two people to buy tickets Sunday for the first trip pn the River
Line at the start of the line in Camden

Camden
Courier-Post - March 15, 2004

First things first: Riders get up
early for initial trip

By RICHARD PEARSALL

They didn't step on board the train at 5:45 a.m Sunday because the
price of gasoline is soaring or because the roads between here and
Trenton were congested.

The first people to ride the River Line, South Jersey's long-awaited
34-mile light rail line, were there for just that reason - to be first.

"My dad dropped me off about 5," said Brandon Harris, 16,
of the Parkside section of Camden, who was first to buy a ticket at the
Entertainment Center station, the start of the line at the Camden end.

"I just wanted to be the first guy," Harris, a student at
the Camden County Vocational-Technical School, who said he had no
particular interest in trains or mass transportation.

By the time the white, blue and yellow train pulled into the station
shortly before 5:45, a half-dozen other riders had gathered on the
platform.

And there already were about 20 people aboard, savvy riders who had
boarded in Pennsauken, next to the garage where trains are stored
overnight.

But no one seemed to be jockeying for bragging rights. Everyone was
smiling and the line was universally declared a good ride.

Passenger service on the billion-dollar River Line began as the sun
rose Sunday.

It did so without hoopla, far different from the day before when
dignitaries - allowed to take a preview run - gave speeches, bands
played and the governor broke a bottle of champagne over a rail car.

Most of those aboard the first passenger run on Sunday, appropriately
enough, were rail buffs for whom trains and their history are a passion.

Mike Friedberger, 56, of Rockaway, got up at 2:30 a.m. to ride the
first train, his 12-year-old daughter, Rachel, in tow.

For him, the inaugural run was old hat.

"I rode the first PATCO train (in 1969)," Friedberger said,
"and the first train to Atlantic City (in its latest
incarnation)."

About 85 passengers made the inaugural River Line trip to Trenton,
arriving "on or close to schedule" about 6:58 a.m., said Penny
Bassett-Hackett, spokeswoman for NJ Transit.

Eddie Ruberte drove in from Mount Laurel with his two daughters,
Anadie, 4, and Evanna, 6.

Ruberte said he wanted to see what the line was like "after all
those delays."

The girls seemed excited just to be on an early morning adventure
with Dad.

One rider who expects to be back is Bob Vogel, one of several members
of the West Jersey Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society
who boarded the train at the 36th Street Station in Pennsauken.

"I'm going to take it to New York City," said Vogel, a
62-year-old chemist from Collingswood, adding he'll take PATCO to the
River Line to a NJ Transit train north.

"It will take longer," he conceded.

But it also will relieve him of the drive to Hamilton Township he now
makes to catch the train to the city.